Marcus Cholerton-Brown, 37, is about to swap his Hong Kong home in Happy Valley for a cabin on board a 68-foot racing yacht when he becomes the Skipper of Qingdao Clipper in the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race.  Marcus Is currently learning Mandarin at night school and will become an ambassador for the city of Qingdao, the home of the Olympic Sailing Village of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“It’s fantastic news that I’ve been selected to be the skipper of Qingdao Clipper for the Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race,” said Marcus on hearing his boat allocation.  “It will be an honour to represent the city of Qingdao and I have heard some wonderful reports about the welcome the fleet received during their visit in the Clipper 05-06 Race.  I’m looking forward to seeing the Olympic Sailing Village and hoping that myself and the crew of Qingdao Clipper can do the city proud by winning the race into our home port.”

British-born Marcus has grown up with a love of boats and was a keen dinghy sailor from the age of seven until his teenage years.  However, it wasn’t until Marcus had the opportunity to sail on a Nicholson 55 on a trip from Gosport to Gibraltar, following his officer training with the Royal Air Force, that he got into big boat sailing.

“I’ll never forget that first experience,” said Marcus.  “It was blowing a Force 9 across the Bay of Biscay and whilst most of the crew disappeared below deck I was on the helm completely oblivious to the severity of the conditions around me and loving every minute.”  From this point onwards Marcus never looked back and took advantage of the Royal Air Force’s adventure training to get his RYA Yachtmaster and other RYA qualifications during his eight years as an officer.

“My first job after leaving the Air Force was as a floating skipper with Sunsail Ionian Yacht Base,” Marcus said.  “I really felt that I had found my niche and I worked with a great bunch of people.  It was a good introduction to how I could make sailing my profession as well as my passion,” he added.

Most of Marcus’s sailing experience to date has come from working firstly as a mate and then as a skipper for the Challenge Business Ltd.   “As a skipper for Challenge I competed in numerous races including Round Britain and Ireland in 2005 and 2006, Rolex Fastnet 2005 and Round Ireland 2006,” Marcus said.  “This has given me good grounding for racing large boats with non-professional crew.”

It’s not the possibility of severe sea and weather conditions that worries Marcus about the race; he believes the hardest thing will be being away from his friends and family.  “My wife Natasha is very supportive of me doing the race and being based in Hong Kong she plans to come and see me during the Asian stopovers” explained Marcus.  “In addition to this we will be spending Christmas together when the fleet arrive in Fremantle, Western Australia, where we will be joined by my parents to spend a family Christmas together.”

Marcus is now looking forward to Crew Allocation Day at Portsmouth Guildhall on 30 June.  “I’m really looking forward to meeting the crew this month and getting the team together for lots of racing practice,” said Marcus.  “I love ocean racing and long passages so I can’t wait for the race to begin!”

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